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Sunday, November 17, 2013

State v. Dumlao case brief

State v. Dumlao case brief summary
715 P.2d 822 (1986)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Defendant appealed the decision of the
First Circuit Court (Hawaii), which was entered on a verdict
convicting him of murder. Defendant argued that the trial court erred
in refusing to instruct the jury on manslaughter under Haw. Rev.
Stat. § 707-702(2) (1976).

CASE FACTSDefendant was convicted of murder for
killing his mother-in-law.

DISCUSSION

On appeal, the court reversed, finding
that the trial court erred in refusing to give his requested
instruction on manslaughter because there was sufficient evidence
that he was acting under the influence of extreme mental or emotional
disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation.

The court
noted that § 707-702(2) required that the reasonableness
of the explanation be considered from defendant's subjective
viewpoint, in contrast to the commonly used objective reasonable
person standard.

The court ruled that the extreme emotional
disturbance defense was similar to the "heat of passion"
defense, but was not negated by the passage of time between the
provocation and the act.

The court concluded that evidence that
defendant suffered from a paranoid personality disorder, causing him
to have irrational jealousy and unwarranted suspicions about his
wife's faithfulness, was sufficient to warrant the instruction and to
leave the jury to weigh that evidence, no matter how weak,
inconclusive, or unsatisfactory, in deciding whether to convict him
of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

CONCLUSIONThe court reversed the trial court's
judgment and remanded the case for a new trial.

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